Commodores finish strong, down Indians 106-87

PANAMA CITY — Gulf Coast outscored Chipola 25-9 over the final 6:33 to pull away for a 106-87 victory Saturday night at the Billy Harrison Field House in the Panhandle Conference debut for both teams.

Van Johnson scored 26 points to lead the Commodores (15-3), with Will Robinson scoring 20 of his 24 in the second half, and Jeremy Harris adding 19. Jahshire Hardnett led Chipola (16-3) with 20 points, with Cedric Wright adding 17.

Chipola led by as much as 14 points in the first half before Gulf Coast rallied to cut the deficit to 46-42 at the break. The second half featured a flurry of offense with nine different lead changes as the teams traded haymakers.

With Gulf Coast clinging to a six-point lead with 5:57 remaining, Commodores coach Jay Powell told his players during a timeout what it would take to bring the game home.

“We talked about that if we want to win we have to make multiple stops in order to win and we were able to do that,” he said. “When we mixed in some zone, the men were very communicative with that and rotated very well. The defensive stops really separated us there at the end of the game.”

It was Robinson who helped the Commodores solve the 1-3-1 halfcourt trap of Chipola, repeatedly catching the ball in the middle of the court and either scoring via jumpers or hard drives to the basket or finding an open teammate for a score underneath.

With his team trailing 67-63, Robinson scored nine of the next 12 Gulf Coast points, the last three coming on a three-point play off of a nice spin move in the paint to put the Commodores up 75-74 with 8:41 to play.

Robinson later added a 15-foot jumper and a 3-pointer from the left wing to give Gulf Coast an 85-78 edge with 6:21 on the clock. A three from Harris put the Commodores up 89-79, with a pair of drives by Johnson followed by a two-handed dunk by Londell King off of a pretty pass by Robinson putting the finishing touches on the game with a 102-84 lead with 1:32 to play.

“I was very proud of the way that Will played against the zone,” Powell said. “He was getting the ball in the middle and he finished well and made some shots, but I don’t want to forget the high-low action where he got the ball and made some great assists. It was not all scoring. He played a well-rounded basketball game.”

It was the 11th win in the last 12 games for the Commodores, who did just what their coach told them was absolutely necessary to do in order to compete for a Panhandle Conference title.

“The men knew that this was an important game mainly because it’s a home conference game,” Powell said. “As I said before, you might slip up once or twice, but you really need to win your home games in the conference. The men stepped up and did a good job of that this evening.”

Chipola used a 13-2 run in the first half to open up a 13-point edge, with a hook shot by Yuat Alok starting the spurt and a 3-pointer by Hardnett finishing it and giving the Indians a 29-16 lead.

It was 36-22 after another three from Hartnett, but the Commodores stormed back thanks largely to the efforts of Johnson, who scored on a pair of driving baskets followed by two free throws and a 3-pointer to cut the lead to single digits at 42-35. Dyshane Murphy added another three and then found Ricquail Smoot inside for two to cut the margin to three at 44-41.

Gulf Coast will next go on the road to face Tallahassee on Tuesday, while Chipola will be at home for Tallahassee on Saturday.